ON VIEW: February 25 – May 28, 2023
The Cheech and the MexiCali Biennial present Land of Milk & Honey, a traveling multidisciplinary arts and culture program featuring works by over 40 artists whose works focus on concepts of agriculture in the regions of California and Mexico. Drawing inspiration from John Steinbeck’s portrayal of the region as a corrupted Eden, the exhibitions and programs question ethical, cultural, and regional practices related to foodways and the venture from seed to table. The biblical reference of a “land of milk and honey” first became associated with California as a tool for promoting the state as a land of opportunity; a destination for those in search of a better way of life – a terra firma that would provide sustenance and abundance. This boosterism also served as an ethos that fueled “Manifest Destiny” and resulted in land grabs, ecological destruction, and social injustices.This exhibition features artists’ views of multi-layered topics associated with agriculture including cultural relationships to food, associations with identity and place, and historical and political concerns.
In conjunction with Land of Milk & Honey, an adjacent gallery presents MexiCali Biennial: Art, Action, Exchanges, an exhibition of artworks and ephemera that chronicle the history of the MexiCali Biennial from 2006 to the present.
More than 40 artists have works on view at The Cheech, including:
Alejandra Aragón, Carlos Castro Arias, Mely Barragán, Juan Bastardo, Emily C-D, William Camargo, Pablo Castañeda & Eduardo Kintero, Carolyn Castaño, Chris Christion & Jessica Wimbley, Gerald Clarke, Fernando Méndez Corona, Xavier Cázares Cortéz, Juan Delgado & Thomas McGovern, Janet Díaz, Guillermo Estrada a.k.a. Rancho Shampoo, Edgar Fabián Frías, Liliana Conlisk Gallegos (Mystic Machete or Dr. Machete), Isidro Pérez García, Melora García, Ed Gómez, Luis G. Hernández, Albert Lopez Jr., Juan Luna-Avin, Narsiso Martínez, Lorena Gómez Mostajo, Dominic Paul Miller, Marylucille Nuñez, Ruben Ochoa, Camilo Ontiveros & Javier Tapia, Cat Chiu Phillips, Planta Libre Espacio Experimental, Alex Rivera, Cielo Saucedo, Shinpei Takeda, Domingo Ulloa, Jazmín Urrea, Marcus Zúñiga
Land of Milk & Honey is organized by Ed Gómez, Luis G. Hernández, Rosalía Romero, and April Lillard-Gómez.
This project was made possible with support from the Mellon Foundation and the California Humanities, a nonprofit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Additional support provided by a 2022 American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) Sustaining Public Engagement Grant, supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) as part of the American Rescue Plan Sustaining the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan (SHARP) initiative.